FIFA World Cup 2014 Predictions: Match #37 Japan vs. Colombia

Colombia's James Rodriguez (L) celebrates next to teammate Juan Cuadrado scoring against Ivory Coast during their 2014 World Cup Group C soccer match at the Brasilia national stadium in Brasilia June 19, 2014.
REUTERS/Paul Hanna

Final Score

Japan 1 Colombia 4

Overview

The thirty seventh match of the FIFA World Cup 2014 is going to be held between Japan and Colombia. The Group C match should be quite an interesting contest between the two as this will be Japan's last chance to try for a berth in the "group of 16." Colombia, on the other hand, will try to finish the group stages with another win.

Teams

Japan: Japan lost a close match against Ivory Coast. Its second match against Greece was one of the very few matches in this year's world cup that ended in a goalless draw. Even though Japan played competitive football, its major obstacle to victory was the inability to score. Japan scored only 1 goal in 2 matches and conceded a couple. It even failed to score against a 10-man Greek squad even though it dominated on most occasions. If Japan aspires to win against Colombia and leave the door to qualify in the next round open, it has to score. Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni knows that it is his team's last chance. It must win against the group leader Colombia with a minimum 2-goal difference and hope that Ivory Coast does not win its next match against Greece.

Colombia: Colombia has technically qualified for the next round. It has won the first two matches in the group stage. Even if it loses this match, it will still go to the next round. In that scenario, Ivory Coast is the only team which can level points with Colombia with a win against Greece. However, that won't prevent Colombia from going to the "round of 16." Even though this will be only the second time in Colombia's history that it will play in the "group of 16," Colombia coach Jose Pekerman is not willing to celebrate much. He has said that he would be looking forward to playing against Japan which is "capable of fighting." Colombia does need to keep its head cool to continue to perform.

Head to Head

These two teams played twice against each other before. One match ended in a draw, and Colombia won the other 1-0.

Key Players

Japan: Keisuke Honda & Shinji Kagawa

Colombia: Juan Quintero & James Rodriguez

Date, Time & Venue

Brazil's time zone is UTC/GMT -3. The match starts at 4 pm (local time) on June 24, which means it is 6 am on June 25 in New South Wales, Australia. The match will be held at Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba.

Prediction

Colombia will continue to do well. Japan will fail to score enough to win this match. Colombia will win the match 3-1. Japan will fail to go to the next round.